It’s 2023 and the calendar has just flipped over to September. The Yankees are already out of the playoff race as they take the field in Houston. In an effort to inject some youth into the lineup and some excitement into the fanbase for the final month of a disappointing season, they’ve called up their much-hyped top prospect Jasson Domínguez for his MLB debut. With his first swing in the major leagues, Domínguez crushes an opposite field two-run home run into the Crawford Boxes off future first ballot
Hall of Famer Justin Verlander. At just 20 years old, you could allow yourself to dream about just what heights this budding star might hit. Fast-forward three years, and now the question facing the 23 year old is whether he has a future with the Yankees.
Grade: F
2026 Statistics: 57 games, 222 plate appearances, .225/.267/.368, six home runs, 14 RBI, 4.5 BB%, 21.6 K%, 76 wRC+, -1 OAA, -0.2 fWAR, -0.2 rWAR
2027 Contract Status: Pre-arbitration
In the subsequent years since that scintillating debut, Domínguez missed the majority of the 2024 season to Tommy John surgery. He got his first real run out at the major league level in 2025, but those 123 games exposed his serious shortcomings on defense. At least his bat produced at a slightly above average level to provide a nominal floor, but the trapdoor opened and swallowed him up in 2026.
What makes it worse is that Domínguez had a real opportunity to prove he belonged in the majors with Aaron Judge missing almost 100 games with a broken rib and a subsequent calf injury and Cody Bellinger losing a month to a hamstring injury over the summer. Not only did Domínguez fail to grab that opportunity, but his beleaguered play raised serious doubts about his viability as a major leaguer and opened the door for fellow top prospect Spencer Jones to leapfrog him on the outfield depth chart.
Domínguez spent the first month at Triple-A before getting called up on April 27th. He struggled to the tune of a .617 OPS and 70 wRC+ with one home run in 32 plate appearances before landing on the 10-day IL with a left shoulder AC joint sprain. It would be another five weeks before he returned to the major league roster, by which point Judge’s extended absence had begun, seemingly creating an opportunity for consistent playing time.
Jasson got a decent run of starts over the next two months and looked fairly serviceable in his first month back from his shoulder injury. From June 13th through July 10th, Domínguez slashed .255/.293/.447 with four home runs and six stolen bases — good for a 105 wRC+ in 100 plate appearances. However, with the Yankees desperate for production against left-handed pitching, the trade deadline acquisition of Heliot Ramos along with Jones’ gradual improvements against big league pitching and steadier defensive play further squeezed Domínguez out of the outfield picture. With just a 53 wRC+ across his subsequent 80 PAs after July 10th, Domínguez was demoted to Triple-A on August 4th, where he would stay for a month.
This culminated in the worst four-game stretch of Domínguez’s career upon his recall on September 5th. Jasson made a pair of high profile errors against the Padres and Rockies, leading to a swift demotion just five days later. And it was the nature of the errors that led to the immediate loss of patience, both resulting from complete lapses in concentration as the Yankees were making one final push to try to chase down the Rays in the division.
Domínguez would not appear in another major league game in the regular season and would be left off the postseason roster. All told, 2026 was a year of alarming regression for a young player who should have been making progress on both sides of the ball. He finished the year below replacement level, his 76 wRC+ the worst on the team among hitters with at least 100 PAs. He saw his walk rate plummet from 9.6-percent in 2025 to a measly 4.5-percent in 2026, resulting in an OBP drop from .331 to .267 — both marks placing him in the seventh percentile or worse among MLB hitters with at least 220 PAs. He posted a career-low 5.6-percent barrel rate and saw his average exit velocity drop 2.5 mph and his hard-hit rate nosedive from 49.6-percent to 39.1-percent.
The defense remains the biggest concern, and it has gotten to the point where you seriously worry when even a routine fly ball is hit in his direction. He was well below average in his initial reaction to a batted ball and among the league’s worst in the routes that he took. It snowballed to the point that he looked devoid of confidence when approaching a ball in the outfield, as we saw with the above pair of examples.
At this point, there are only three facets of Jasson’s game that give you hope. At 93.3 mph, his arm strength places in the 94th percentile of MLB outfielders. His sprint speed remained intact, placing in the 85th percentile at 28.8 ft/s. And despite the regressed batted ball results, his 74.5 mph average swing speed places him in the 85th percentile of MLB hitters. The raw tools are there, but his process prevents him from making the most of them.
Still at just 23 years old, one would think there is plenty of time for Domínguez to piece things back together. It remains to be seen whether that happens in pinstripes. As my colleague Andrés wondered last week, this offseason could determine whether Domínguez’s future lies with the Yankees. Nothing he did in 2026 offers faith in the once-bright prospect regaining the team’s trust.
